Living by Increased Faith with Manifold Mercy, 32nd Monday (II), November 7, 2016

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Monday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Votive Mass for the Faithful Departed
November 7, 2016
Ti 1:1-9, Ps 24, Lk 17:1-6

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• At the beginning of today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about scandal and then forgiveness in such a way that the apostles cried out to the Lord, “Increase our Faith,” and Jesus replied about the power of faith, that if we have even a little faith, we can do the impossible, like transplanting mulberry trees into the sea. During this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, we can ask for increased faith with regard to how to respond to scandals, how to forgive others with the same infinite mercy we find in God, and how to live the type of life by which we won’t scandalize others.
• Jesus begins the passage talking about scandal and the damage it causes for others’ growth in faith. “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,” the Lord says, “but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” Jesus is clearly describing the punishment scandalous behavior warrants. But at the same time that he mentions a millstone, he wants to help unshackle someone from that millstone through mercy. One of the most important parts of our life of faith, one of the greatest lessons of this Jubilee of Mercy,  is our recognition that just as God never tires of forgiving us, we should never tire of asking him for forgiveness and of sharing a similar mercy with others. This is hard. It requires great humility to ask for forgiveness. It requires greater humility to give it. Jesus is calling us not merely to give people a second chance, but an eighth chance. And in another part of the Gospel he says, depending upon the translation, that we need to give a 78th chance or a 491st chance. In order to be capable of doing this, we need his help, we need the strength that comes from faith. That’s why we humbly beg, “Increase our faith!”
• In the first reading, St. Paul describes the qualities for the discernment of priests and bishops precisely so that they won’t cause scandal but rather bring people to imitate God. Most of these qualities will pertain to any Christian. He says that they need to be blameless, which is the opposite of scandalous; married only once, meaning that they can live chastely and not be men who had to marry after the death of a first wife, because then probably they wouldn’t be able to live the continent chastity required; with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious, because if a father can’t raise his own children in the faith, how can he raise others’ children in the faith?; not arrogant, because he must be a humble servant like Christ; not irritable, because he must love even those who annoy him; not a drunkard because he must be sober and alert; not aggressive, but meek; not greedy for sordid gain, but poor in spirit because the kingdom he seeks is the Lord’s; hospitable because he sees Christ in the stranger saying, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me”; a lover of goodness, so that his virtue is not just in seemingly virtuous needs but comes from a good fruit-producing tree; temperate since he must have self-mastery; just, since he should be right with God and fair with others; self-controlled since he must be disciplined to be a discipline and help form other disciples; hold fast to the true message as taught so that by his life he can exhort the faithful and refute opponents; and in short, holy, dwelling in and reflecting the holiness of God.
• When a priest or a bishop or a Christian does not live with these traits, it obviously does impact people’s faith. They have high expectations of those who have been given much in the Lord’s service. We are all held to high expectations because we wear religious habits and cassocks. They expect us to behave like Jesus, to speak like him, to love like him, to be merciful like him. We even have high expectations of each other. We can be scandalized when fellow priests, or bishops, or religious live in a spiritually worldly way, make decisions as serpents without any glimpse of the purity of doves, those who speak more like sailors than they do the Lord. Today Jesus is calling us to a higher standard, reminding us that by faith in him, by his power, we can live up to that standard, so that we might draw people to him by our behavior rather than drive them away. In this Jubilee of Mercy, one particular area in which this increased faith is important is in the readiness with which we forgive, because if we fail to forgive, we can often scandalize. We’re the ones who are supposed to show that we get that unless we forgive others, neither will our heavenly Father forgive us our sins. Sometimes in the priesthood and in religious life we find priests and sisters who nourish grudges, who haven’t forgiven even after many years. Today Jesus wants to increase our faith so that we will forgive as frequently and as generously and as from the heart as he does.
• The means by which the Lord most seeks to augment our faith each day happens here at Mass. He strengthens our faith by what he teaches us in the Liturgy of the Word. He strengthens us even more by entering into us in Holy Communion. We know that if we receive a particle of the host the size of a mustard seed, we’re receiving within Him who can strengthened us to do all things. As we consume his precious blood given for the remission of sins, this is the way by which we’re able to go out to forgive others their sins. This is the means by which we are strengthened never to give scandal but instead become “signs of contradiction,” just like Jesus, capable of bringing people to conversion and to the forgiveness God wants to give that we show by our forgiveness is possible. Lord, increase our faith!

The readings for today’s Mass were: